Patty's Place

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Grief can make you feel like you have to be “fine” for everyone else, even when you are falling apart in the quiet moments. We wanted a conversation that cuts through the clichés and actually helps, so we invited Nicolette Vasquez, Team Leader of Grief Support at Lightways Hospice and Serious Illness Care in Joliet, Illinois, to walk wi...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Forgetting a name once can feel like a warning siren, especially if dementia has touched your family. We sit down with Jill Agin, founder of Four Better Minds, to talk about what actually helps brain health as we age and what caregivers can do when they feel helpless watching cognitive changes unfold. Jill explains Cognitive Stimulation...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. The worst part of grief is not only the pain, it’s the awkward silence around it. People want to help, but they reach for the same tired lines, and you’re left holding heartbreak while also managing everyone else’s comfort. We talk with Patty Camo Simonson, a peer grief specialist and bereavement professional, about what actually suppor...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Your energy, sleep, and brain might be running on something you barely think about: light. We talk with Sarah Turner, founder and CEO of Sarah Thrive (CERAThrive), about why modern indoor life can create a real “light deficiency,” especially when we miss the red and near-infrared wavelengths our bodies evolved with at sunrise and sunset...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Some days feel so heavy you can’t even tell what you’re feeling, you just know you’re tired. When grief is fresh, when dementia caregiving never really “turns off,” or when life keeps stacking one problem on top of another, it can start to feel like God is far away. We talk about that reality openly and without polishing it up, because...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. A planned goodbye sounds impossible until you hear what it actually looks like inside a family that chooses it. We’re joined by Teresa Evans, an author and former ICU nurse, to talk about her book *Choosing to Die* and the final months she spends with her mother in Ontario as her mom pursues medical assistance in dying (MAID). Teresa br...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Loneliness doesn’t always look like being alone. Sometimes it looks like being a caregiver with a full calendar, a heavy heart, and nobody to hand the weight to. I sit down with psychotherapist and writer Carl Nassar, author of The Village Solution, to name the thing so many of us feel but struggle to explain: we’re exhausted because we...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. We sit down with Dr. Warren Wong to rethink what dementia care should look like when the goal is love, dignity, and real quality of life for both the person living with memory loss and the caregiver. We share hard truths about emergencies, wandering, and burnout, plus practical ways to build trust and get meaningful support instead of t...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. The funeral ends, the messages slow down, and suddenly the calendar becomes the hardest part of grief. We sit down with Kelly Edmondson, founder and CEO of Timely Presence, to talk about what support should look like after the sympathy flowers are gone and real life returns. As a former trauma nurse and now a certified grief counselor,...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Grief gets treated like a single moment, but for caregivers it’s often a long, exhausting season. We sit down with Victoria Volk, certified grief specialist and creator of Grieving Voices, to talk about what actually helps when dementia caregiving, hospice decisions, and anticipatory grief collide. She explains what an end-of-life doula...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Grief can make the world feel smaller overnight, and widowhood can make you wonder who you even are without the person you built your days around. We’re joined by Cindy J. Burns, a grief coach, grief doula, and self-described widow coach, for an honest conversation about what helps when you’re tired of pretending you’re fine and you jus...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Alzheimer’s doesn’t just change memory. It can change time, language, confidence, and the simple feeling of being anchored in the world. We talk with Sam Simon, author of *Dementia Man: An Existential Journey*, and his wife Susan about what it really means to keep choosing life after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis and how to push back on the...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. A lot of caregivers learn transfers the hard way: you get through today, you wake up sore tomorrow, and you tell yourself it’s just the price of loving someone. I’m joined by Ben Couch, creator of Eastern Ergonomics and a longtime healthcare educator with decades of martial arts training, to challenge that belief with practical, body-sa...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Dementia caregiving can break your heart in a way most people don’t understand: you’re grieving someone who is still here. We sit down with psychotherapist Dr Katherine Brasowski, who has 25+ years of experience in grief counseling, anxiety, chronic illness, and major life transitions, to name what so many families feel but rarely say o...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Dementia doesn’t just change memory, it changes the rules of the relationship. When a person still looks like the mom, dad, or spouse you’ve always known, it’s easy to assume they’re choosing to be difficult, hiding things, or “not trying.” That misunderstanding can turn caregiving into a daily argument and it burns families out fast. ...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Grief doesn’t just break hearts, it also exposes the parts of us that are strongest, rawest, and most alive. Lisa sits down with best-selling author, speaker, and grief coach Marie Alesi to talk about what happens when the worst phone call becomes real: Marie’s husband Rob leaves for a business trip and never comes home, passing from a...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. Grief can make you feel like you’re failing at something you never asked to do. Today we sit down with Jane K. Dye, RN, holistic health coach, and certified grief educator trained in David Kessler’s approach, to talk plainly about what helps after loss and what quietly makes it harder. Jane shares how the death of her son Christopher pu...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. The hardest part of grief often shows up after everyone else goes home. The service is over, the texts slow down, and you’re left holding silence, memories, and a thousand details you never asked to manage. We wanted to talk about what actually helps in that stretch, so we invited Christa McDonald, a hospice nurse with more than 20 year...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. The hardest grief stories aren’t always the ones we expect, sometimes they’re the ones we learn late. I’m joined by Lisa Sugarman, author, nationally syndicated columnist, crisis counselor with The Trevor Project, and a three-time survivor of suicide loss, for an honest conversation about what happens when the “official” version of a lo...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. What if burnout isn’t laziness but accumulated disappointment we never named? We sit down with Dr. Angela Fassaro—emergency physician and startup founder—to unpack the quiet reality of grief at work: the missed launch, the teammate who vanished after a reorg, the promotion that didn’t land, the identity shift no one can see. Angela brin...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. What if the family stories you love didn’t fade with time, but stayed close enough to talk to? We sit down with Reflecta AI founder Miles Spencer to explore how digital legacies become living, conversational presences—comforting a grandchild at bedtime, guiding a pie crust at Thanksgiving, and keeping a family’s wisdom from gathering du...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. We break down the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s, then walk through real signs, major types, and what caregivers can do right now. We share our family stories, the limits of diagnosis, and how to meet loved ones with calm, dignity, and practical steps. • dementia as an umbrella term and why it matters • Alzheimer’s as the m...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. What happens when the person who once guided you now needs your guidance? We invited author Ingrid Hansen Pop to talk about the hidden pressures of caregiving, why smart problem‑solvers still feel stuck, and how small mindset shifts can lower stress fast. From the myth of “I must fix everything” to the hard truth that plans fall apart u...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. We sit with grief educator Lisa Wrights to explore anticipatory grief, workplace expectations, holiday triggers and the myth of a timeline. Stories from dementia caregiving ground the advice, while journaling and groups offer real relief. • why anticipatory grief wears down caregivers • why repeating stories can comfort the person with...

I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. The first signs often feel small—too much food in the fridge, unopened bills, a story on repeat—and then the worry sets in. We invited gerontologist Janice Goldman to help us turn that worry into a plan you can actually use, from decoding what “dementia” really means to knowing when to call the doctor, how to prepare legal documents, an...